Sunday, July 31, 2005

Karaoke, sunshine, and shopping...

"...son las tres cosas que me hacen feliz!" which means, "...are the three things that make me happy."

(It's a lyric from a 50's latin song, "Pan, Amor, y Cha Cha Cha." --which means, "Bread, Love, and the Cha-Cha" in Spanish. It's on a cd called "Rum Punch: Hip Swaying Classics" from of all places, Restoration Hardware. I highly recommend it, though it's incredibly hard to find.)

Bobby came to visit CopyKat and me this weekend. So of course we had to take him to our favorite karaoke bar, The Mint, located in the Castro. But I realized I was sorely out of practice, so I brushed the dust off my PS2 on Saturday to practice a few tunes on Karaoke Revolution. I was able to carry a tune enough to score some good points and unlock extra features for the game, which I was pretty happy about, but I still think my singing has really gone downhill.

Then I met up with two girlfriends for dinner to try a wonderful Indian fusion restaurant, Tallula, in the Castro district. We ordered several small dishes, plus some cocktails. Everything was delicious! The cocktail menu had the funniest lyrical, romance-novel-inspired descriptions. I'd love to go back to try the rest of the unique dishes on the menu.

Then we met up with Bobby and tatertot and her posse of friends. CopyKat sang Madonna's American Pie, and I sang Rosemary Clooney's Mambo Italiano --Even though I couldn't keep up with a few of the lyrics, I tried to cover it up with drunken exuberance. Well I wasn't quite so drunk, but just a bit buzzed. Frankly I was surprised that after 3 cocktails and a pear cider, I wasn't getting a buzz. So CopyKat bought me a fruity Stoli shot to finally get me buzzing. (CopyKat got rather drunk though, which made the drive back home rather amusing.)

As usual, there were a lot of amazing singers. A lot of them picked songs I would never think of, in genres such as blues, country, and even opera. The performances were all very inspired, and even the few who didn't necessarily have a great voice, were still entertaining. I even saw a repeat performance from the last time I was there: a man who sang both the male and female parts of C + C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat". I'd say one of the highlights from this night was a white guy who sang "Milkshake." That was highlarious. Our friend Bobby, who was visiting from out of town sang some Linda Rondstadt song I've never heard -- "Silver Threads and Needles" or something like that. And our favorite karaoke DJ, Frank, sang a wonderful rendition of a Josh Groban song.

On Sunday, we all met up again for brunch at yummy Zazie in Cole Valley (where I had wonderful gingerbread pancakes with lemon curd), then went shopping on a beautifully sunny Haight Street with the girls. I ended up buying all kinds of stuff, including flipflops, shirts, and cds.

Then I bought a cute little schoolboy-style white hat, by Goorin. I hadn't ever heard of this brand, so I had to look up the brand's site when I got home. Apparently they make ALL kinds of cute retro-modern hats for both men and women, as well as even bags and wallets! And they aren't even crazy designer prices! So I ended up ordering more hats! (I'm looking forward to my haircut at the end of the week, which should help hats look and fit better on me.)

As if I didn't buy enough already this weekend! Ahh, it's nice to be a single career girl. So much for the house chores I was planning on doing. I guess I'll have to take care of them after work--before I skip town next weekend for my NYC trip!

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Saturday, July 30, 2005

Yes, Everyone Poops. Especially Velvet Goldmine.

Bummer of the week:

I don't know why anybody had recommended Velvet Goldmine as a watchable movie.

I tried to watch it with CopyKat, and we tried our best to be patient, but after watching a character survive a mental institution as a result of brotherly incest, and then seeing lizard-like, body-painted Jonathan Rhys-Meyers writhe around, humping blowup dolls frantically in a music video and making out with a spooky transvestite, CopyKat and I couldn't really stand it much longer. We had to just turn it off, wondering how a movie like this ever got made.

It's a long 70's glam rock gay transvestite fantasy, from the point of view of someone on drugs, who likes to believe in aliens that reincarnate into humans through the power of some emerald jewel. HOW is this movie supposed to appeal to me in any way? I don't care if it's an homage to David Bowie. I can still enjoy his songs and like gay/bi people without watching this crap. Even a naked Ewan McGregor couldn't save this film for me. I think I need to watch Down with Love or The Island again to console myself after watching this debacle.

Inspirations over the last week

I stumbled on this wonderful little children's book by Taro Gomi, called My Friends. You may be familiar with her other book, Everyone Poops. I am starting to pay more attention to children's books, because I think someday I may want to delve more into illustration, possibly as a career. Well this little book, My Friends not only had charming watercolor art, but a touching story of how a little girl learns from her diversity of friends. She learns to nap from the crocodile, how to kick from her friend the gorilla, etc.

Also I discovered a wonderful illustrator's blog by Paige Pooler, which led me to find Illustration Friday, a site that provides weekly topics for illustrators to practice their work. And then I was at Target, shopping for the annual back-to-school backpack donations through work. In their children's book section, I found Sleepytime Tales, which is a collection of all those "Little Golden Books" you may have remember from your own childhood. I decided to get it because there was so much delightful art by a variety of illustrators in it, including one of my childhood favorites, Richard Scarry.

By the way, if you haven't seen Target's new back-to-school commercial, spoofing Sir Mix-a-lot's "Baby Got Back," you have to see it now. Target is GENIUS. (I wish I knew the lyrics better; that would be an awesome and funny song to sing at karaoke tomorrow!)

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Thursday, July 21, 2005

Free t-shirt! Free t-shirt!

Earlier today I found the answer to the mystery of my most popular photo! (see previous post.) Apparently the people at Veer.com blogged it to toot their own horn for their limited edition "free t-shirt."

The Veer tee is actually one of those rare wearable free t-shirts. I just didn't take one because free t-shirts rarely come in a flattering fit for petite female frames.

Besides, working for a large company with a fun brand has already provided me with a regular supply of free t-shirts and tchotchkes. Back in the day, this was usually a treat. Sometimes I'd get something fun and useful, like a fold-up beach chair, sleeping bag, magnet, or light-up bouncy ball. (Well, okay that last one wasn't so useful, but it was entertaining for 5 minutes.) But the t-shirts were always too big and piled up in my drawer, usually saved for the gym or given away.

So as the years have gone by, I now dread the free t-shirt. At least make a cute t-shirt if you're going to expect me to wear the damned thing.

I mean, I like the products and services we create, and I believe that they contribute to people's lives, and I'm sure our engineers and developers are some of the best in the industry ("the Bauhaus of DHTML," as one engineer proclaimed), but I am not going to be jauntily walking around in public with a shirt that has PHP CODE scattered across it. You might as well just make me write "SERIOUS GEEK" in big letters across my forehead.

Can't they just humor me, since I am designer, to at least put some thought into designing the shirt? If they just make a cute, nicely designed one that fits me appropriately, I will wear it. My manager will attest that I said I'd join his team if he could get me a girly Messenger t-shirt. I was half-joking, but yes, I have worn the shirt from time to time. It's a shirt that fits a female, in a flattering light green color.

Lucky for me we have a healthy influx of excitable new hires at Yahoo, so they are happy to take my extra freebies off my hands. Someone else will be happily wearing the limited edition PHP-emblazoned shirt.

If you are in the market for a fun t-shirt, the NY Times reported on some interesting t-shirt retailers. I also would recommend Busted tees, Bang-On, Delia's, and Giant Robot. And I even like the occasional American Eagle tee.

Speaking of which, I'm supposed to design a t-shirt for my team! Hmm....

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Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Most Popular for misocrazy!

Every once in a while I like to check the Most Popular news and photos on Yahoo! News. It's an amusing cultural thing to observe. Inevitably the most popular pics regularly feature baby animals, giant things, small things, deformed people, or nearly naked women. Today's most popular photos, for example, include what looks like a sumo wrestler adjusting another's wedgie, a man getting poked in the ass by a bull's horn, a female pro-volleyball player's butt, and President Bush making the stupidest face ever.

I learned that flickr lets you see which of your photos are most popular, most commented, and chosen as favorites! It's like my own "Most Popular Photos" section. So on my fairly new flickr (now PRO! --thanks to Havi) account, somehow this pic of Brian playing Space Invaders is wildly popular. Perhaps it caught on cuz it's part of a pool of photos shared by other How Conference attendees, but who knows. Of course, my second most popular photo is of my ex-boyfriend's sisters and me all dolled up for a party. I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that a photo of beautiful ladies would be very popular. But who are these people viewing them??

Oddly enough, someone picked two of my photos of a design studio interior as their favorites. I find them fairly unremarkable, so I don't quite understand that.

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Monday, July 11, 2005

I'm crushing your head!

Arnie's head getting crushed
I'm crushing your head!
Originally uploaded by George.
The Governator visited the Yahoo! campus today. (I don't know the person who took this picture, but I found it amusing.)

I think Terry makes a good CEO, and I think he's pretty down-to-earth for an executive with a Hollywood background. But frankly, I cringed when he introduced the Governator and listed, among Arnie's accomplishments, that he had "a world-class wife." What on earth??

Our cafeteria actually ran out of room for spectators, and the rest of us Yahoos had to watch the streaming video from our monitors. After listening for a bit, I figured my time may be better spent doing some actual work. He just rambled about his wacky career highlights and gave basically a campaign speech about the changes he's making for "Cah-lee-four-nya." And there was a lot of mushy talk between Arnie and Terry. And then Ahhnold ended it with a classic "I'll be Baaach!"

Since I viewed it through streaming video, I wondered if I was missing any hisses or other negative reaction, since there are plenty of liberal-minded, educated voters in the company. Then I found photos of protesters (and Arnie at Yahoo!) on flickr.

They had Tom Brokaw come speak last time, so I suppose it's fair to have different points of view be represented at our company's speaker series. Maybe next time we could get a woman?! Anyway, if you want to hear/see more details about the event, here is Jess's more thorough blog coverage of it, and Zawodny's summary of the speech and Q & A.

In other news:

Last week, some of the neighboring cubicles were being restructured into bullpens. Aside from the already unsettling noise, my cube-mates and I overheard this conversation from the movers in the next aisle over:

Mover 1: Man, there's a dead rat in here.
Mover 2: You found a dead rat?
Mover 1: And there's a mousetrap too.
Mover 2: Ugh, this guy needs to clean up.

--At which, my cube-mates and I turned around and cringed in horror. So we have rats in our office building, and obviously someone knew enough to set up traps, but that someone was not checking them! I might add, we work on the third floor!

In more positive news...

Last Saturday, I went to Rockridge with copyKat and Scott to eat at Soi 4 (super-tasty and reasonably priced Thai food) and see the movie, Rize. It's a fun and inspirational documentary about the new art form/ dance, Krumping, that which happens to be saving a lot of inner-city youth from getting caught up in drugs and gangs. Krumping looks like a breakdance mixed with an exorcism, but with clown makeup. Sounds crazy? It is, and in the movie there are even real Dance Battles! Also I believe it's the film direction debut of fashion photographer, David LaChapelle. Apparently MTV nearly scammed a ripoff reality show about krumping off of LaChapelle's concept, but LaChapelle scared MTV from doing it.

On Sunday, I visited Mama Pork with Tatertot. Baby Pork continues to be totally cute; now he is starting to talk in Cantonese and English! He showed Tater all his baby books and named all the animals and made the animal sounds, like "Woof, woof!" And he freely gives kisses.

Cosmic Onion is in town this week and will be visiting me this Thursday!

Well wouldn't you know it!? The bag I wanted (see previous post) went on sale, so I ordered the green one. Yippee!

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